White House Down
White House Down is the 2013 action film. The film was released in June 28, 2013. It was written by James Vanderbilt and directed by Roland Emmerich. The film was in competition with another "Die Hard in the White House film" Olympus Has Fallen. In this film, U.S. Capitol Police officer John Cale (Channing Tatum) takes his estranged daughter Emily (Joey King) on a tour of the White House after being rejected to join the Secret Service. When the White House is taken over by a paramilitary mercenary group, led by vengeful Secret Service presidential detail chief Martin Walker (James Woods) and embittered ex-Delta Force commando Emil Stenz (Jason Clarke), Cale has to save President James Sawyer (Jamie Foxx), Emily and also prevent the start of World War III. Although White House Down is met with a mixed reception among critics and audience alike, it had warmer reception than competitor Olympus Has Fallen but was a box-office flop. Plot John Cale is a U.S. Capitol Police officer assigned to Speaker of the United States House of Representatives Eli Raphelson after Cale saved Raphelson's nephew's life during a tour in Afghanistan. Cale is struggling to develop a better relationship with his daughter Emily, who has a strong enthusiasm for politics. He hopes to impress her by getting a job with the Secret Service, but his hopes are dashed when the interview is conducted by Carol Finnerty, a former college acquaintance of his who believes him to be unqualified due to a lack of respect for authority and follow-through. After lying to Emily about the outcome of the interview, she and Cale join a tour of the White House. At the same time, U.S. President James Sawyer proposes a controversial peace treaty between allied countries to remove military forces from the Middle East. Meanwhile, mercenary Conrad Cern disguises himself as a janitor and places a time bomb into a cart, rolling it into the center of the rotunda at the center of the U.S. Capitol building and leaving it just before it explodes, killing scores of innocents and destroying the building's dome. Raphelson, who was in the Capitol, remains unharmed and is taken to an underground command center with Finnerty while Vice President Alvin Hammond is taken aboard Air Force One. The White House is put on lockdown separating Cale from Emily (who had left the tour group to use the restroom). Meanwhile, mercenaries led by Emil Stenz who were disguised as video technicians start killing off most of the Secret Service and take the tour group hostage, but Cale manages to take a gun and escapes a mercenary named Killick to go find his daughter. Following protocol, retiring Head of the Presidential Detail Martin Walker escorts President Sawyer and his detail to the Presidential Emergency Operations Center. Once Sawyer gains access, Walker kills Sawyer's detail, revealing himself to be the real leader and his desire for revenge over his son who was killed in a botched black ops mission. Cale, who fails to find Emily, kills a mercenary and takes his gun and radio. Using the radio, Cale locates and rescues President Sawyer. Walker and Stenz bring in Skip Tyler to hack into the defense system, but they still require Sawyer to activate the nuclear football. They locate the remaining presidential line of succession, kill the Secretary of Defense, and place rest of the line of succession with the hostages. Emily, while hiding, records a video of the mercenaries and uploads it to YouTube before eventually being captured after being accidentally seen by Killick. Walker demands $400 million from the Federal Reserve as ransom for the hostages. Cale and Sawyer manage to reach out to command which tells Cale to get Sawyer out through underground tunnels. At the command center, Finnerty uses Emily's video to discover the mercenaries' identities, discovering that they used to work for various government agencies and radical political groups. They are informed that Stenz, a former Special Forces operative, was disavowed and burned on mission, leading to his capture by the Taliban, making his involvement one of retribution. They also discover that Walker has an inoperable tumor, suggesting his involvement to be a suicide mission and that the attack is not for ransom. Cale and Sawyer find the tunnel gate rigged with an explosive and are forced to escape with a presidential limousine. After giving chase with Stenz on the White House lawn, Cale and Sawyer are flipped into the White House pool after Cale gets distracted by Killick holding Emily at gunpoint. A gunfight erupts which results in an explosion that leaves Sawyer and Cale presumed dead. Hammond is then sworn in as acting President. When Cale and Sawyer reveal they are still alive, they learn Hammond has approved an aerial incursion by Delta Force to take back the White House. Knowing the mercenaries have Javelin surface-to-air missiles, Cale tries but fails to stop the mercenaries from shooting down the helicopters. Cale gets into a fight with Stenz and ends up dropping his White House passes for himself and Emily while escaping. Having already learned of Emily from the video, Stenz, knowing that she is Cale's daughter, takes her to Walker in the Oval Office. Meanwhile, Tyler finishes the upload to NORAD and launches a missile at Air Force One, killing everyone on board, including Hammond. Raphelson is then sworn in as acting President and orders an airstrike on the White House. Finnerty informs Cale of Raphelson's decision. Walker tells Cale over the White House intercom to surrender Sawyer or he will kill Emily. Sawyer ultimately surrenders himself to save Emily, knowing Cale could still save them if he was free. Walker reveals to Sawyer that his motive for the attack is to convey a message of American power. Because of Sawyer's dislike for military force, and his backing out of the mission that killed his son, Walker had grown to believe Sawyer was too weak to be president. By launching a nuclear assault on Iran, Walker hoped to regain international respect for America. However, Sawyer refuses to activate the football, though he appeals to Walker that his son didn't die in vain, that the peace treaty was victory. When Walker threatens to kill Emily again, the alarms and sprinklers are set off by Cale setting various rooms on fire. Tyler tries to escape by deactivating the bomb on the tunnel gate, but discovers that it has been tampered with so it goes off rather than disarms when he leaves. Killick finds Cale and tries to kill him, but is ambushed by Donnie the White House tour guide, who bludgeons Killick to death with a bronze clock. After freeing the hostages and entrusting Donnie to get them out safely, Cale kills Stenz with a grenade belt after a confrontation. Sawyer attacks a distracted Walker, who ultimately gains the upper hand and uses Sawyer to activate the football before apparently shooting him dead. Using updated launch codes received by an anonymous source, Walker targets various cities in Iran, but before he initiates the launch, Cale crashes into the office in a presidential escort vehicle and kills Walker with a minigun. When Emily is told of the air strike, she takes a presidential flag and waves it on the front lawn and gets the fighters to call off the attack. Sawyer reveals himself to be alive as the bullet that hit him hit a pocket watch his wife had given him. Finnerty calls them to reveal that the mercenaries were not called in by Walker and that there is another mastermind behind the attack. Cale realizes who it is and asks Sawyer for his help in exposing the traitor. When Finnerty arrives at the White House with Raphelson, Cale tells them Sawyer was killed. Raphelson then orders troops to be placed back into the Middle East, which would go against Sawyer's peace treaty. Cale reveals Raphelson had orchestrated the attack because of Raphelson's disagreement with Sawyer's treaty and proves it by having Finnerty call the call-back number on the pager. Sawyer then reveals himself and has Raphelson taken into custody, treating his taking of the Presidency as a coup d'état. Sawyer officially employs Cale into the Secret Service and takes him and Emily on a personalized aerial tour of Washington, D.C. on his way to the hospital. Cast and characters U.S. Capitol Police/Secret Service *Channing Tatum as John Cale *Maggie Gyllenhaal as Carol Finnerty *Matt Craven as Kellerman *Jake Weber as Ted Hope *Vincent Leclerc as Ryan Todd U.S. Government *Jamie Foxx as President James Sawyer *Michael Murphy as Vice-President Alvin Hammond *Lance Reddick as General Caulfield *Peter Jacobson as Wallace *Anthony Lemke as Captain Hutton *Jackie Geary as Jenna Terrorists *James Woods as Martin Walker *Jason Clarke as Emil Stenz *Richard Jenkins as Speaker Eli Raphelson *Jimmi Simpson as Skip Tyler *Kevin Rankin as Carl Killick *Kyle Gatehouse as Conrad Cern *Falk Hentschel as Motts *Romano Orzari as Mulcahy *Patrick Sabongui as Bobby *Anatoly Zinoviev as Vadim *Lee Villeneuve as Chen *Andreas Apergis as Ritter *Rhys Williams as Sniper Terrorist *Colby Chartrand as Mercenary (uncredited) *Patrick Kerton as Mercenary (uncredited) *Louis Paquette as Mercenary (uncredited) *Simon Northwood as Mercenary (uncredited) *Darryl Scheelar as Mercenary (uncredited) Hostages *Joey King as Emily Cale *Nicolas Wright as Donnie Donaldson *Andrew Simms as Roger Skinner Others *Rachelle Lefevre as Melanie *Barbara Williams as Muriel Walker *Garcelle Beauvais as First Lady Alison Sawyer Production White House Down is directed by Roland Emmerich and based on a screenplay by James Vanderbilt, who is also one of the film's producers. Sony Pictures purchased Vanderbilt's spec script in March 2012 for $3 million, in what The Hollywood Reporter called "one of the biggest spec sales in quite a while". The journal said the script was similar "tonally and thematically" to the films Die Hard and Air Force One. In the following April, Sony hired Roland Emmerich as director. Emmerich began filming in July 2012 at the La Cité Du Cinéma in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Cinematographer Anna Foerster shot the film with Arri Alexa Plus digital cameras. In 2012, Sony competed with Millennium Films, who were producing Olympus Has Fallen (also about a takeover of the White House) to complete casting and to begin filming. Release White House Down was originally scheduled for a November 2, 2013 release, but was moved up to a June 28, 2013 release. Home Media White House Down was released on DVD and Blu-ray Disc on November 5, 2013. Reception Critical response White House Down has received mixed to positive reviews from film critics. The film has a 50% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, based on 155 reviews. The site's consensus is: "White House Down benefits from Channing Tatum and Jamie Foxx's sharp comedic chemistry, but director Roland Emmerich smothers it with narrative clichés and relentless, choppily edited action." At Metacritic, which assigns a weighted average score out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the film received an average score of 52 based on 39 reviews, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Some critics feel that WHD's lighter, character and action driven storyline worked better than OHF's darker, dialogue and politic driven storyline. Roth Cornet of IGN gives it a 6.5/10, concluding: "White House Down is a pretty silly rehashing of previously tread action movie territory, but if you're willing to laugh along with (or even at) it, it can be a highly entertaining experience." Conversely, Andrew Chan of the Film Critics Circle of Australia writes, "I am not entirely sure, whether I should be happy or sad that I laughed when someone got shot or bomb, but such is the manner of how the film is played out. Therefore, I prefer “Olympus” for this one." Box office At the first weekend in the U.S., the film disappointed and came in at #4 at the box-office. It earned $24.9 million, slightly ahead of Man of Steel, third weekend revenue of $20.7 million. and was less than March's similarly themed Olympus Has Fallen ($30.4 M). The film grossed $73,103,784 in the United States, plus $132,262,953 internationally for a combined gross of $205,366,737. In October 2013, Sony announced it lost $197 million for June, July, and August 2013, and largely blamed "the box office flop of the movie White House Down as a key reason for the weakness". Marketing External Links * *White House Down on Wikipedia Category:Films Category:Die Hard in the White House scenario movies Category:Die Hard scenario films involving nuclear weapons Category:Die Hard scenario films with militia group villains Category:Die Hard scenario films with cyber terrorists and hackers Category:PG-13 rated films Category:Die Hard scenario films with Secret Service characters Category:Martial Arts action entertainment Category:Columbia Pictures movie Category:Jamie Foxx action films Category:2010 era releases Category:2013 Category:Die Hard in a Elevator scenario movies Category:James Woods action films Category:Die Hard scenarios set in Washington, D.C.